The Highway of Death(Even in Vietnam I didn’t see anything like this. It’s pathetic." — Major Bob NugentArmy intelligence officer)

There
are also indications that some of those bombed during the withdrawal
were Palestinians and Iraqi civilians. According to Time magazine of
March 18, 1991, not just military vehicles, but cars, buses and trucks
were also hit.

In many cases, cars were loaded with Palestinian families and all their possessions." — Joyce Chediac -Report presented at the New York Commission hearingMay 11, 1991

Shooting in a sheep pen

The
above photo of wreckage on the infamous "Highway of Death" was taken in
March 1991, in southern Iraq. The road went from Kuwait to Safwan, at
the Iraqi border, and on to Basra.

Tens
of thousands of soldiers and civilians were fleeing desperately, many
in civilian vehicles. They were obviously no military threat to anyone.
And yet American forces gleefully massacred them all, joking that it
was as easy as "shooting in a sheep pen."

On
many occasions Iraqi soldiers tried to surrender to American forces. It
didn’t make any difference. U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots were under
orders to mass-murder every last human being in cold blood.

Incinerated body of an Iraqi soldier on the "Highway of Death", a namethe press has given to the road from Mutlaa, Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq.

Highway of Death

One
of the most graphic and heinous crimes of the Gulf War occurred on the
highway between Mutlaa, Kuwait and Basra, Iraq, also known as "The
Highway of Death."

As the U.S. began its land assault, Iraq announced that it would comply with U.N. resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait.

Iraqi
soldiers as well as Iraqi, Palestinian, Jordanian and other civilians
piled into whatever vehicles they could commandeer, including a fire
truck, and fled north towards Iraq. U.S. planes disabled vehicles at
both ends of the convoy, creating a 7-mile long traffic jam.

U.S.
planes then began to bomb and strafe the entire line of some 2,000
vehicles for hours, killing tens of thousands of helpless soldiers and
civilians while encountering no resistance and receiving no losses to
themselves.

"Another
60-mile stretch of road to the east was strewn with the remnants
armored cars, trucks, ambulances and thousands of bodies following an
attack on convoys on the night of February 25, 1991.

U.S.
planes immobilized the convoy by disabling vehicles at its front and
rear, then bombing and strafing the resulting traffic jam for hours.

More than 2,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of charred and dismembered bodies littered the sixty miles of highway.

Outlawed Weapons Massacre

The
clear rapid incineration of the human being [pictured above] suggests
the use of napalm, phosphorus, or other incendiary bombs. These are
anti-personnel weapons outlawed under the 1977 Geneva Protocols.

This
massive attack occurred after Saddam Hussein announced a complete troop
withdrawal from Kuwait in compliance with UN Resolution 660.

As the U.S. began its land assault, Iraq announced that it would comply with U.N. resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait.

Iraqi
soldiers as well as Iraqi, Palestinian, Jordanian and other civilians
piled into whatever vehicles they could commandeer, including a fire
truck, and fled north towards Iraq. U.S. planes disabled vehicles at
both ends of the convoy, creating a 7-mile long traffic jam.

U.S.
planes then began to bomb and strafe the entire line of some 2,000
vehicles for hours, killing tens of thousands of helpless soldiers and
civilians while encountering no resistance and receiving no losses to
themselves.

"Another
60-mile stretch of road to the east was strewn with the remnants of
tanks, armored cars, trucks, ambulances and thousands of bodies
following an attack on convoys on the night of February 25, 1991.

Such
a massacre of withdrawing Iraqi soldiers violates the Geneva Convention
of 1949, common article 3, which outlaws the killing of soldiers who
"are out of combat".

There
are, in addition, strong indications that many of those killed were
Palestinian and Kuwaiti civilians trying to escape the impending siege
of Kuwait City and the return of Kuwaiti armed forces.

No
attempt was made by U.S. military command to distinguish between
military personnel and civilians on the "highway of death". The whole
intent of international law with regard to war is to prevent just this
sort of indiscriminate and excessive use of force.

Now
as we draw the comparison with American and coalition forces in that
first war we find the following: the US had more than 500,000 troops in
the War while non-US forces added up to an additional 160,000.

US
wounded tallied 467, British 24, French 2. US casualties were 148
battle deaths and 145 nonbattle deaths and allied Arab casualties
numbered 39. That means that the US suffered 293 deaths to Iraq's
100,000, not counting the 35,000 civilians killed or 460 times as many
Iraqi dead as US forces....

"It
has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been
held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging
that war. We intend to make this one different.

What
took place was the use of technological material to destroy a
defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We
recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to
justice." Ramsey Clark

One
can stare at the 24-hour cable news networks from sunup to sundown and
get no sense of the carnage in towns and cities from Baghdad, to
Fallujah, to Ramadi, to Hilla in the south and Tal Afar in the north
that is left in the wake of US rockets, bombs, tank shells and sniper
rounds.

The evening
news reports of the major networks provide at most a fleeting image of
the death and destruction, inevitably hedged with absurd avowals from
the US military that "precision" attacks were carried out against
"terrorist" and "anti-Iraqi" targets.

In
reality, the US media's disinformation operation is among the most
striking and significant expressions of the collapse of American
democracy.

Bush Ordered the Destruction of Facilities Essential to Civilian Life and Economic Productivity Throughout Iraq.

The
United States Intentionally Bombed and Destroyed Defenseless Iraqi
Military Personnel; Used Excessive Force; Killed Soldiers Seeking to
Surrender and in Disorganized Individual Flight, Often Unarmed and Far
from Any Combat Zones; Randomly and Wantonly Killed Iraqi Soldiers; and
Destroyed Material After the Cease-Fire.

The
United States Used Prohibited Weapons Capable of Mass Destruction and
Inflicting Indiscriminate Death and Unnecessary Suffering Against Both
Military and Civilian Targets.

The
United States Intentionally Attacked Installations in Iraq Containing
Dangerous Substances and Forces in Violation of Article 56 of Geneva
Protocol I of 1977.

Defendant
Bush Encouraged and Aided Shiite Muslims and Kurds to Rebel Against the
Government of Iraq Causing Fratricidal Violence, Emigration, Exposure,
Hunger and Sickness and Thousands of Deaths. After the Rebellion
Failed, the U.S. Invaded and Occupied Parts of Iraq Without Lawful
Authority in Order to Increase Division and Hostilities Within Iraq.

Defendant Bush Intentionally Deprived the Iraqi People of Essential Medicines, Potable Water, Food and Other Necessities.

Defendant
Bush, Having Destroyed Iraq's Economic Base, Demands Reparations Which
Will Permanently Impoverish Iraq and Threaten Its People with Famine
and Epidemic.

George
W. Bush, upon taking office in 2001, immediately began a systematic
withdrawal from major international treaties to which the US was a
signatory. As part of that policy, on May 7th, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld
informed the Secretary General of the UN that the US was officially
withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Months
before, the US had already established that the court would grant the
United States immunity from the court for US citizens suspected of
atrocities. Under guidelines pushed through despite EU concerns, US
soldiers serving overseas would be immune from prosecution in the
court, while politicians and US officials, including CIA operatives,
could claim diplomatic immunity.

That
was not enough. Rumsfeld made it very clear that the United States
would reject any attempt by the court or state parties to the treaty to
assert any jurisdiction over American citizens. In short, Americans
were accountable to no one for any atrocities they might commit
anywhere in the world.

Bombs Over Baghdad

U.S. War Crimes in Iraq: A Prima Facie Case

Ever
since the end of Desert Storm, when the Pentagon unloaded 350 tons of
depleted uranium, American officials have been well aware of the health
hazards of the residue that is collected from the processing of nuclear
fuel.

When
President [sic] Bush and the Pentagon authorized the use of depleted
uranium for the shock-and-awe campaign against Iraq in March 1983, the
Bush administration not only committed a war crime against the people
of Iraq, it demonstrated reckless disregard for the health and safety
of American troops.

Article
23 of the Geneva Convention IV is clear and unambiguous: "It is
forbidden to employ poison or poisoned weapons, to kill treacherously
individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army, to employ arms,
projectiles or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering." The
Geneva Protocol of 1925 explicitly prohibits "asphyxiating, poisonous
or other gasses, and all analogous liquids, materials or devices."

In
Afghanistan the American military will not allow news coverage so as to
have a free hand in the extermination of all Taliban forces. The
American media has exercised almost total self-censorship regarding
documented massacres in Afghanistan ....

American Forces Do Not Do Body Counts ....They Just Report What Sounds Good

In
October, the British medical journal Lancet estimated 98,000 Iraqis had
died as a result of the invasion and occupation. The study was based on
interviews with people in 988 households with 7,868 residents randomly
selected across Iraq. Forty-six percent of the violent deaths were of
children younger than 15, and 7 percent were women, the researchers
reported. The findings were dismissed by the U.S and British
governments as inaccurate.

The
estimates of ordinary Iraqis killed -- by insurgents, U.S. troops and
Iraqi criminals -- vary greatly, from as low as 6,000 up to nearly 100,
000, depending on the methodology used.

The
U.S. military says it does not keep track of civilian deaths. "We don't
do body counts," Gen. Tommy Franks, who commanded U.S. troops in both
Afghanistan and Iraq, said in 2002.

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